Field of the Disclosure
Embodiment of the present disclosure relates to the art of a vibration damper for suppressing torsional vibrations resulting from torque pulses, by an inertia torque of a mass.
Discussion of the Related Art
JP-A-2008-164013 describes a damper device for absorbing vibrations resulting from pulsation of torque transmitted from an engine to a transmission through a torque converter clutch. The damper device taught by JP-A-2008-164013 comprises, a annular disk to which torque is delivered from the torque converter clutch, an output member to which the torque of the disk is delivered through spring, a sun gear connected to an inertial mass, a ring gear arranged around the sun gear, pinion gears interposed between the sun gear and the ring gear while being supported individually by a shaft protruding from the disk toward opposite side of the torque converter clutch. According to the teachings of JP-A-2008-164013, the ring gear is formed on a plate member integrated with the output member, and the sun gear, the inertial mass, and the pinion gears are disposed between the ring gear and the disk.
In the damper device taught by JP-A-2008-164013, an angular velocity of the sun gear is changed by pulsation of the torque applied to the disk, and the inertia torque of the sun gear resulting from change in the angular velocity thereof is delivered to the output member through the ring gear. In this situation, a phase of the torque transmitted to the output member through the ring gear is reversed to be opposite to that of the torque transmitted to the output member from the disk through the springs. By thus integrating the sun gear with the inertial mass and integrating the ring gear with the output member, an oscillating width of the sun gear with respect to the disk and the ring gear can be widened so that vibration damping performance can be enhanced without enlarging the inertial mass.
That is, the vibration damping performance of the vibration damper taught by JP-A-2008-164013 is enhanced by increasing the inertia moment and the angular velocity of the inertial mass. However, in the damper device taught by JP-A-2008-164013, a size of the sun gear is limited to a space enclosed by the plate member connecting the ring gear to the output member and the disk. For this reason, the vibration damping performance of the sun gear may be limited.